It Feels Good to be Back in the Groove

So I've been consistently going to the gym three days a week for the past month and a half or so.  I think that I've gone to the gym more in the past six weeks than I did for the two years previous.  It feels great to be back in a groove again.

Results are slow, but I've definitely been seeing and feeling them. It feels good to have the post-workout muscle pain and tension, to break a sweat and feel that burn that comes when you're finishing off a workout.

Today I did another leg workout with a buddy from work.  Today I did:

Burnout
225lbs - 10 reps
205lbs - 10 reps
185lbs - 10 reps
165lbs - 10 reps
155lbs - 10 reps
145lbs - 10 reps

Box Jumps
4 sets for 10 reps

I wish I had more time to work out at lunch, but grateful to have any time at all.  Working out my legs feels good again.  I was a volleyball player in high school and it's a great to feel the strength coming back to them.

I've still got a long way to go however.

Man Am I Hurting. Feels So Good.

I did a leg burnout workout yesterday, and my legs are killing me.  Here's what I did:


Squats (with about 15 seconds rest in between sets):
225 - 10 reps
205 - 8 reps
185 - 8 reps
165 - 8 reps
145 - 8 reps
135 - 8 reps


Lunges (4 on each leg with about 15 seconds rest in between sets):
140 - 8 reps
130 - 8 reps
120 - 8 reps
110 - 8 reps
100 - 8 reps
95 - 8 reps


My legs feel like Jello today, but it's great to have that feeling again.

Progress Update: Feeling Good

It's been about a week since I posted last.  It's been a busy week and much has been going on.  Here are some highlights:

1. Found a work out partner - A buddy of mine at work is feeling the same need to get back in shape and get healthy.  We've set some goals for how often we're going to go to the gym, and it's been a good motivation for me to have someone else to work out with.  It's been a long time since I've had someone to work out with consistently (probably since my freshmen hear at BYU in 2001), so I'm excited.  It's good to have someone else that you feel accountable to, you know?

2. Great work out today - I had a pretty good workout today.  Well I should say good for me anyways.  I ran a mile and a half and then decided to mix in some other workouts.  After the first 1.5 miles, I did 20 push-ups, 15 ball crunches and 10 squats, then ran .25 miles.  I did that four times.  It's not a major work out, but probably one that I couldn't do four weeks ago or so.  It felt good to be able to complete something like that.

3. Noticing a difference - I haven't lost a lot of weight, but I am noticing a bit of a difference in muscle definition and size (particularly in my legs).  I'm going to be starting a much more strict diet this week, so I'm hoping to see much better results over the next few weeks. 

I'll have more about the diet and such in a post next week.

A Long Road Ahead. Well 10K To Be Exact

My wife and I successfully signed up for the Moab Winter Sun 10K yesterday.  We're both pretty excited to have something to work towards and love spending time in Moab.  

I went for a run today.  The second run outdoors that I've done in about six months.  I learned a few things on my run today:

1.  I do not run well by myself.  I need someone to run with me to keep my attention and provide motivation.

2.  I've got quite a road ahead if I'm going to do well in the 10K in December and also the Half Marathon in March...a really long way.

3.  I need to get Nike+ again.  A few years back I used Nike+ quite a bit, then my running band broke.  It's time to invest in a new one.  

If you've got any tips that will help me prepare for the events that lie ahead, I'd love to hear from you.  Thanks!

Do I Really Want to Get Myself Into This Again? Of Course I do!

Today at noon you'll be able to sign up for the Moab Winter Sun 10K.  If you haven't run a race in Moab, it is definitely a must.  I did the Moab Half Marathon in 2009 and loved it.  Beautiful race, great race crew and they really do a stellar job.  Now granted, it's the only race I've run so far, but glad that it was my first.  I wasn't in the best shape because the early arrival of my first son totally through off my training schedule.  Despite being in bad shape, getting passed by a pregnant women who was about seven months along and feeling like I was going to die, it was an amazing experience.

My wife and I decided that we wanted to run both races this year.  Wish us luck.

By the way, the first 100 to sign up for the Winter 10K get a guaranteed spot in the Moab Half in March.

The Eventual Goal

I think that one of the healthiest points in my life was when I got married.  For nearly an entire year prior , I was working out consistently five days a week, eating well and in a really good place for my health.    When I got married I was pretty happy with where I was health wise.  A year before that, I was probably in the worst shape that I had been my entire life.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, over the course of that year, I lost about 75 lbs. A wedding and honeymoon will provide that motivation I guess.

Here's a picture of me playing with my wife's nieces in Hawaii just after our wedding.  During the year mentioned above, I was home in Hawaii for three months, during which I was hanging drywall for work and after work my buddy and I would either surf or work out at 24 Hour Fitness.  When I got back to Utah for school, I got a membership at Gold's Gym, and I was a usual at the 9th East gym in Provo.

I was by no means a specimen and not anything impressive in the pictures above, but obviously in much better shape than I am now (This picture to the left was taken in August at a "family olympics").  This is what getting too comfortable in a relationship (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), and a job that puts you at a computer for majority of the day will do to you.  I stopped working out consistently, started eating out a lot more often and paying less attention to certain signals that my body was sending me.  It took two pretty painful signals to get my attention (a strained hamstring and a strained quad two months later).  I definitely don't have time to work out like I used to, but I'd like to eventually get back to the shape I was in when my wife and I got married.  It's been a fun goal for she and I to go at together.  She's currently doing much better than me.  She's lost about 10 lbs in the last 45 days or so.  She turned into kind of a gym addict...it's really cute and pretty hot.

Progress Update 9.22.2010

Thanks to conscious eating, workouts and maybe a bit of weight fluctuation, I weighed in this morning at 258.  Two lbs down, 18 more to go in this challenge.

I think I'll reward myself with an ice-cream sundae...oh wait, that's not how it works!

10 Reasons Why I'm Losing Weight

Ever heard of a vision board?  It's something that I've seen friends and family use.  Basically, it's a collage of different things that you want to accomplish, or things that you "envision" yourself being able to do.

Consider this post an online version of my vision board.  After some reflection, there were a multitude of reasons why I felt like I needed lose weight and get in better shape.  Here are the top 10 (not necessarily in order of importance).

1. Injury.  Over the last two months, I've strained two muscles doing activities that I could do for hours while I was younger.  Although I don't necessarily believe that it's all because of my weight, I think that weight is a factor.  I think the bigger reason is that my body is just out of shape.  I've got to get back in shape.

2. Health.  I think we've all heard the many health factors that weight plays into.  As I've experienced these recent injuries, my feelings of invincibility that I once had while young are diminishing.  I feel like Superman coming closer and closer to Kryptonite.  I've also had some loved ones recently who have had pretty bad health scares.  They were in pretty good shape, but one of the things that their doctors told them was that they needed to take better care of their bodies.  That was enough of a warning for me to realize that I needed to do the same.

3. Fun.  I've found myself recently not enjoying physical activities as much because of limited physical ability.  That just isn't very fun for me.

4. Vanity.  Looking in the mirror just isn't as enjoyable anymore :-)

5. Accomplishment.  A year prior to getting married I weight about 280 or so.  Over the course of the next year, mostly in preparation for the wedding, I dropped about 75 lbs.  The day I get married I weighed in at 205 (pictures to come soon).  Looking at that scale, and now looking back at the pictures from our wedding and honeymoon gave me (and still do give me) a great feeling of accomplishment.  I need to do that again.

6. Progress.  I'm a progress freak.  I love seeing and tracking progress.  It's kind of like a drug to me.

7. Wardrobe.  I like wearing my old clothes, however some of them don't fit like they used to.

8. Energy.  I find that I have so much more energy when I've been working out and am healthy.

9. The Journey.  Journeys are often greater than destinations...I'm excited for what lies in between.

10. Family.  I got out my calculator and crunched some numbers.  When my son is 15, I'll be about 40.  I want to be able to still beat him in a game of one-on-one, take him on hikes, wrestle him to the ground and keep him in check when he's 15.

20 in 60 | My First Challenge

Starting Weight: 260

Goal Weight: 240

For Thanksgiving, my family is planning on meeting up at Disneyland for a couple of days.  I was looking at a picture of myself at our last family gathering, and it really hit me how heavy I was beginning to look.  Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that I'm grossly overweight, I'm just getting to that point where I'm uncomfortable in my skin...not a good feeling.  At this next family gathering, I'd like to be a bit lighter than the last one.

The trip is in about 60 days.  I'd like to lose about 20 lbs prior to that.  What do you think?  Can I do it?

I'll log my progress every few days.  If anyone has tips and/or pointers, I'd be happy to hear it.

Let me know if you want to join me on this weight loss challenge.  

You've Got To Start Somewhere Right?

So I seriously debated whether or not this blog was a good idea.  I actually think I still am.

Did I really want to put myself out there like this?  Is documenting a topic like weight loss and fitness too personal?  Did I really want to commit to do this?

My answer to that last question is the reason for this blog.  Yes, I needed to commit to something like this.  Knowing that my progress is put out there for anyone to see really lights a fire under my sometimes lazy butt.  

My feelings about that are probably similar to what was being portrayed through Amy Adam's character and her dedication to her blog in the movie "Julie and Julia".

Hopefully this blog will be interesting.  Hopefully this blog will be entertaining.  Maybe this blog will be motivating.

Wish me luck.